“And yet you still turned him down?”
She toyed with the truth for a moment, but if there was ever a lady not to judge, it was Caroline. “I have reason,” she said carefully, “to believe I am barren.”
Caroline blinked. “Oh?”
“And more to the point, I have no desire for children.”
“Ah.”
“Henry is the son of an earl. There are expectations—he, no doubt, will have expectations—that I cannot and do not wish to fill. There are other reasons, too, but that is a consideration. I am not the wife for him, no matter what he thinks. And,” she added matter-of-factly, “it’s a good thing I married Bolton first. As a girl, I never realised, or I would never have asked Henry to marry me in the first place.”
“A little precipitous, don’t you think?” Caroline asked, raising her brows. “Does he know?”
“No, though I doubt that would change anything. He knows his duty, Caroline, and it is not to marry a lady incapable of bearing him children.”
“You should tell him.”
“Why, to torture him more?” She snorted. “I see no reason for it.”
“Well, that’s my recommendation. Take it or leave it.” Caroline gave a one-shouldered shrug. “But if you want to stay single, you have my full support, darling.” Her smile was sultry and heavy-lidded. “And we can kick up a fuss across London together, just like old times.”
Louisa dropped back in her chair in front of the letters. “I’ll finish these before we go down for dinner. No need to wait for me.”
Henry found Caroline on her way down to dinner, and he immediately beckoned her to one side, into the library. With a curious glance at him, she reclined gracefully on a chair. She had a particular way of presenting herself, as though she was conscious of how she looked to others, and it was of extreme importance that they never found her wanting.
She was not in his style, but he couldn’t deny her beauty. Plump and golden, almost angelic, until one got a good look at her grey eyes and saw the knowing gleam there. She had always discomfited Henry a little, largely because she was a worldly woman in ways he had never experienced, and partly because she looked at him as though she would very much like to run her tongue along every part of bare skin she could see.
Today, however, there was nothing but sharp curiosity in her gaze.
“I take it Louisa told you what happened between us,” he said.
A brow arched, and her mouth curved into a seductive smile. “She did. May I offer you my congratulations? Thirty is a long time to wait, but if I know Louisa, she made it worth your while.”
His jaw tightened. “I would rather not talk about that.”
“I will say I think your proposal was poorly thought out,” she continued as though she had not heard him. “You have to know how she would take it.”
“I had not intended to ask her in that way.”
“I see. Transported by delight?” She nodded sagely. “It happens. But a proposal in a rumpled bed does not give quite the right impression.”
“Iknow. Discussing this isnotwhy I brought you here.”
“No? I thought you would want to know best how to win her.”
“I rather think it will be too late,” he said dryly.
She gave a disconcerting nod, and his heart gave another crack. Soon he would be all disparate pieces. “Yes, you may well be right. What is it, then?”
“Louisa has some letters she took from Knight. Do you know anything about them?”
Caroline frowned. “When I left her, she was transcribing them.”
“She has every intention of delivering them back to Knight’s room herself, but while I have every belief in her capability, Isuspect she may well be in danger if she persists. He is volatile, and she is fearless, and—”
“You two are such a pair of fools,” Caroline said, blonde curls bouncing as she almost laughed. “Very well, darling. I will steal back the letters she stole, and I will deliver them into your waiting hands.”
“Thank you.”
